


Necessary Secrets

by idrilhadhafang



Series: TLJ and TROS Redone [1]
Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Fix-It of Sorts, Jedi Leia Organa, Jedi Rey (Star Wars), Leia Organa Deserves Better, Master & Padawan Relationship(s), Past Character Death, Past Leia Organa/Han Solo
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-30
Updated: 2020-11-30
Packaged: 2021-03-09 22:06:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,398
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27803524
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/idrilhadhafang/pseuds/idrilhadhafang
Summary: In the wake of the events of leaving Jakku, Rey struggles with embracing her path as a Jedi under Leia, as well as her growing feelings for Finn.
Relationships: Finn/Rey (Star Wars)
Series: TLJ and TROS Redone [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2034280
Comments: 3
Kudos: 12
Collections: Bad Day Collection, Fics I Wrote Out Of Spite





	Necessary Secrets

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I own nothing. 
> 
> Author’s Notes: Someone brought up the idea of Leia training Rey earlier, and I loved it.

It was in the midst of people coming back from Starkiller Base (and people who didn’t. Leia could feel Han’s absence too keenly) that Leia spotted the girl. Three buns in her hair, dressed in Jakku scavenger’s clothes...and looking so very lost. 

Maybe it was that factor that led Leia to hug her. But it was also the simple, honest fact that she felt far, far too familiar...

***

”Did you get the DNA test results back?” Leia said to Kalonia. She’d asked Kalonia to run DNA tests, of course with the girl’s consent. 

Kalonia nodded. “Yes, but they’re not making any sense whatsoever. Apparently they’re saying that she has Palpatine blood in her...but Palpatine’s dead. I never thought that he would have any children..."

”I don’t want to think about it too hard, Harter.” If Leia was to be perfectly honest, she doubted that anything related to the late Emperor would be considered even remotely consensual. 

That poor woman who was his unwilling consort, she thought. 

“But apparently,” Harter said, “It’s also picking up some Skywalker DNA. Is the Skywalker family...”

”It’s a long story,” Leia said. In her research, she had found that Palpatine had technically been Anakin Skywalker’s father, seeing his offspring (of sorts) as a means to an end.

So this girl and Leia...they were technically connected. Through lineage. 

It made Leia wonder what a Palpatine (a Palpatine-Skywalker, technically) could be capable of. What she could do. Would she be as ruthless as...him? She had that streak in her. That Leia knew.

A good woman — but with darkness that woven through her like a cold silver thread. 

Leia could only hope that she could find a way to tame what she knew was there. Gentling the monster, so to speak. 

***

She told the girl. Watched even as the girl’s eyes widened, in genuine horror. “I...I’m related to that?” she said. 

”It’s not your fault,” Leia said. “Really.”

”I know, but I’m related to that. The same man who — my father said that my grandfather was a bad man. I know that much. I was five when I overheard him and my mother talking, but I remember they were...” Rey ran a hand through the hair that wasn’t restrained in that odd three-buns hairstyle. “They were talking about my grandfather. My father just seemed so scared of him. He kept talking about what he did to his apprentices, kept throwing out names...I don’t know what he was talking about.”

Leia had a feeling. Of course she did. Maul. Savage Oppress. Dooku. Ventress. So many more. She could already picture the victims in her mind, how fragile they became due to Palpatine’s abuse. 

”That must have been why he sent me here.” The girl almost sounded excited. Almost. It was something that seemed so very innocent. A girl with a lot of love to give. “He and Mum. They were trying to protect me...from him.”

”Protect you or not,” Leia said, “I don’t think Jakku’s the best place to raise a child.” Then, “What do you mean ‘protect you from him’?”

”He kept talking about my grandfather like he was alive,” said the girl.

Leia frowned. Could Rey’s father have been suffering from some sort of PTSD? It was an explanation as any. There was no chance that Palpatine could have survived being thrown down a Death Star shaft and blasted into pieces...

Could he have?

”I just don’t know,” said the girl. “This is all so...odd...”

”Rey, we’ll get to the bottom of this," Leia said. “Really. The best we can do is have you...not take on a last name yet. If...Kylo finds out about your connection to the Skywalkers, you may be his next target.”

”I think I’m his next target already.”

”Even so, I don’t think we can just announce your connection yet.”

Rey bit her lip. Leia could sense her disappointment, the whole idea that she couldn’t yet claim her identity publically. At least as a Skywalker, not a Palpatine. 

"We’ll need to train you as well,” Leia said. “You...did defeat my son on Ilum, but the Force was looking out for you that time. When Kylo Ren recovers, he’s going to be very, very angry. He won’t show mercy on you, just because you’re family...”

Leia trailed off. Thought about how she had felt Han’s death on Starkiller Base. The thing was, with Han — he hadn’t gone out wanting Leia to avenge him. He had gone out with nothing but the utmost love for their son. Love and forgiveness, more than a Jedi’s compassion...it was a father’s love for his son. 

”I just don’t understand why he would hate his father.” Rey said. “His father loved him, gave a damn about him."

”I felt it. Kylo...he didn’t so much as hate his father as much as see him as...” Force, it hurt to say. “As an obstacle to be removed. Just to be unfettered.”

Rey snorted. “That’s ridiculous. If my father wanted me to come back from the Dark Side...”

She trailed off. Stars, Leia thought, she looked like she wanted to cry. 

”I wasn’t able to save Han...” Rey said. 

”It wasn’t your fault.” Leia turned to Rey, smiled faintly. “Nothing about it was your fault."

***

It should have been exciting, training to be a Jedi. It really should have. Instead, Rey doubted that she had ever felt more alone. She walked into medbay just then, feeling how quiet it really was. How lonely. Finn was still unconscious — Rey was just relieved that he wasn’t dead. There had been a horrifying moment when she thought Kylo had, essentially, tortured him to death. 

”Hey.”

Rey sat next to Finn, looked down at him. Looked down at features that seemed too smooth. He should be rejoicing with her over their victory. Theirs. He shouldn’t be unconscious. 

"I’m gonna be a Jedi,” she said. “Finn...there’s a part of me that feels you should be there. With me. You were brave too, you really were. Even if you did lose to Kylo...you weren’t weak, Finn. Nothing about you was. You were such a strong, brave fighter on the battlefield, and I just...I just want you to wake up...”

Her voice cracked. She could feel her eyes prickle with tears. Great. It felt like she had been angry and sad a lot today. 

”You were brave, Finn. Are brave. You’re worth a million of Kylo Ren. I believe that.”

She smoothed Finn’s short black hair away from his forehead. 

”Hey.”

A third voice. Rey looked up, just to see the pilot from the D’Qar landing pad. Messy black hair. Handsome, in a sort of swashbuckler way. 

”You here to see Finn?” Rey said. 

”You there to see him?” said the pilot. 

Rey nodded. 

”Yeah. So am I. I fixed his jacket." The pilot held out Finn’s jacket, which had some rather sloppy stitching, but the care there was obvious. 

”It’s good of you,” Rey said. “Really.” Then, “I’m Rey.”

”I know.” So much power in these words, in Rey realizing she’d gone from a nobody scavenger to someone. A hero in her own right. Someone connected to the Skywalkers and the Palpatines, although she couldn’t tell anyone. 

How did she deal with that?

”I’m Poe,” said the pilot. “Poe Dameron. Finn...you must have meant a great deal to him. When you were taken, he was willing to sacrifice everything to find you.”

”He means a great deal to me too.” Rey hadn’t expected that, if she was to be honest. A former stormtrooper becoming just about everything to her. 

”Obviously.”

It was Kalonia who shooed them out, saying that she could watch over Finn and the two of them needed to get their rest. Rey smiled faintly. “I’ll see you around, Poe.”

”See you around.”

***

Rey was taken to a room on the Resistance base, where the first thing she did was move the bed to the center of the room. After living on Jakku, she knew she’d had enough of metal against her back. She sighed, feeling contented despite herself as she sank into the soft mattress below. The pillows too...she had been so used to hardness and harshness. Now...she couldn’t say how to react to this. 

She fell asleep then. 

Her dreams, admittedly, were chaos. 


End file.
